Do you have what it takes to start a business?

In this short video I share the top 6 traits I think you need if you wanted to start your own business… so do you have what it takes?

The transcript for those who prefer to read 🙂

Hello, it’s Victoria Casebourne here. I’d like to share with you the six traits that I think you need in order to run a business.
It’s not for everybody, it’s not an easy, push button, let’s make loads of money type of thing, it’s really hard work. I’ve been doing it for 15 years and I’ve had a lot of ups and downs and I’ve helped a lot of people start businesses. It’s not for some people because it takes too much commitment, and for them they don’t want it enough.
I want to run through these six areas for you to think about to see if you could run your own business, and if you’ve got what it takes.1. Do you have something that you could be super passionate about?
Have you got something in your life that you really, really love doing and that really excites you, and also comes quite naturally to you? That is where you want to be focusing, because being in business is hard and sometimes you have to work long hours. Because you love it and because it’s where your heart sings and it’s what you absolutely love, it doesn’t feel like it’s a problem. It doesn’t feel like you resent it like you would if you were being told by your boss to work longer than nine to five and putting in overtime, because you want to and it’s like a hobby. I think you really need that in business, and if you’re running a business that feels like a slog and it’s not where your heart is, then it becomes a little bit too much like hard work.

2. Are you resilient?
Can you keep going, even when you get a few knocks? Anything worthwhile doing is going to come with things that are going to get in your way. You just have to look at some of the major successes out there, so JK Rowling, for instance, she didn’t get published straightaway, but she got success at the end, and that’s the same for loads of really incredibly successful people out there who didn’t have success at the beginning. Are you resilient enough to get through those initial hurdles you might have to face to keep going?
You can’t just put your stuff out there, launch a website and expect to build a business instantly. There will be times when you’re worried it’s not going to work, or you’re going to get some feedback that knocks your confidence, so you need to learn from it. Keep going anyway, knowing in your heart that this is for you and that you’re prepared to get past those knocks. I’m incredibly sensitive and I take it on board, but I want it enough that I keep going anyway, and that’s what you need to be. You need to be able to stand up against those types of things and keep going anyway, and that is where you start to build a really great business.3. Have you got support around you?
It’s incredibly hard to do this alone, you need support. Whether that’s from your friends and family, maybe you have a mentor, a coaching group, you need support around you in order to do this, especially if you’re a mum and you have other commitments. That could be emotional support, and you’re not going to have all the answers because you’ve not run a business before, so you’re going to need business support. I didn’t have any of that when I started, and I did do it alone, but it was a really long, laborious, lonely process and I wouldn’t recommend it. Yes, you can do it alone, but I think if you want to get there quicker and with less pain, find that support so that you can learn from other people, you can be picked up when you hit those lows, and keep you going towards your goal. That’s where the resilience will come in as well, because you’ll have that support around you, and it’s very difficult to be resilient when you don’t.4. Do you have a healthy relationship with money?
If you’re quite bad with money management and you end up in a lot of debt, that’s going to follow into your business. As you’re building your business you will be getting sales and money, and if you’re just going to throw all that money away and be reckless with it, you won’t build up your business. That’s also on a very emotional level as well, because if you don’t feel that you deserve the money, for instance, your subconscious will either push the sales away so that you don’t get them, or when you get sales it’s going to be like pushing the money away. If you’re going into business you want to do it because you’re going to be earning a lot of money and being really profitable, so you do need that healthy mindset around money.
I don’t necessarily have a brilliant relationship with money myself, or I haven’t had up until recently, so I’ve had a lot of coaching around it. If that’s the one thing out of these six things that’s a problem, then get some coaching and support around your money mindset. All of that is learnable and all that’s happened is that during your childhood you will have experienced negative messages around money. It’s all very subconscious, but if you notice that about yourself, I’d really recommend getting that sorted now before you start building your business.5. Can you jump in without all the facts?
You need to be able to jump in without having all the facts and all the answers and be prepared to do things that aren’t completely perfect at the beginning. If you’re the sort of person that wouldn’t feel prepared to do anything without having everything in place, then I think you’ll struggle with being an entrepreneur, because you do have to think on your feet, you have to wing it a little bit sometimes because you don’t have all the answers. If you wait to have all the answers and all the boxes ticked and everything done, you might have lost that opportunity.
Be prepared to step out of that comfort zone and do it, and operate in the dark a little bit sometimes so you can grow. It might be that that’s not you and you might still be able to build a brilliant business, but I think one of the things that really stands me in a strong position is that I’m willing to go out and have a go, and if it fails, then I’ve got the feedback. I call it failing forward, so I’ll go out and have a go at something, and if it doesn’t work I’ve learned loads. I can go on and apply that to other parts of my business and pass it on to my lovely clients so they don’t make similar mistakes. It makes for great fun, and it means I can move really quickly.

6. Are you ready to commit to your business 100 per cent?
You can’t run a business half-heartedly. Looking at me, I had a baby a year ago and I couldn’t focus on my business 100 per cent, so it wasn’t growing. It’s now doing amazingly and it just reinforces how important it is to have everything in it 100 per cent, because that is when you’re going to grow. If you approach your business half-heartedly, it’s not going to grow and it’s not going to go anywhere. You need to be in the mindset that you want this, you’re going to do it no matter what, you’re jumping in 100 per cent and you’re going to make this work.

What happens then is when any of the blocks we talked about earlier come in front of you, you’ll be like, I know that I’m going to do it eventually anyway, so how am I going to get round it? If you’re sticking your toe in the water you might be thinking, oh well, maybe that’s a sign, so I’ll give up. So you need to be 100 per cent committed to your dream, and that makes a massive difference.

I hope that’s helped. I’d love to know if you think you could run your own business, because I believe most people can. Everything’s learnable, but you do need those basic traits, although you can build on and work on if you really have the desire to be your own boss and run your own business. Believe me, 15 years on, I wouldn’t have it any other way. As I’ve said, it’s hard work, I don’t want you to think that running your own business is amazing all the time, because I think people that don’t run businesses think that’s what it’s like, you start a business and you’re suddenly rolling in money and it’s all so easy. It’s not, otherwise everybody would be doing it, but it’s so worthwhile. I have complete freedom and flexibility of my time, I absolutely love it. If you’re the right person, then you would love it too, if you build it around your passions.

I’m running a completely free two week challenge that you are very welcome to come and join me on. I’ve put a process in place which guides you through working out what those passions are and looking at the opportunities that you could work around that, looking at the people that could support you, and really getting a good plan in place and giving you that structure, space and support to work out what your perfect business would be.

If this sounds like it could be you, then you probably have a business inside of you waiting to come out, and we just need to work out what that perfect one would be. If you want some help to work out what that perfect business would be for you, do come and subscribe to my free challenge and you can find the link over at https://victoriacasebourne.com/challenge There’s a beautiful workbook for you to fill in, a challenge and a video every day, so I’d love for you to come and get some value from that.
I hope you’ve found that helpful, I’d love to hear from you in the comments. Have a great day!
End of transcript 🙂